Innovative Practices Roundup

As we shift from summer into fall, I have compiled the most striking posts from the past few months. Organizations are using HHS grants for transit, making new partners, and trying new models to best support their communities.

Here are my top 5 posts from this summer:

Mississippi Partnership Provides CDL Training for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness

The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) partnered with the Mississippi Home Corporation (MHC) to provide driver training and employment for unhoused people. The success of the program has been life changing for Mississippians experiencing homelessness, while helping transit providers solve critical driver shortages.

Mobility Managers Partner with Family Justice Center

In 2015, social worker Kim Garrett worked at the victim’s services unit at the Oklahoma City Police Department. After seeing families struggle around Oklahoma City, she and the police chief founded the family justice center model to bring agencies together in one location.

Missouri Volunteer Driver Network Funded Through HHS Grant

New Growth Transit (NGT) is an unusual transit program because it began operations with a grant from a Health and Human Services Agency – the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

A New Model of Food Banking is Emerging

For a small but growing number of food banks, distributing food is no longer enough.

These food banks, including Feeding Tampa Bay and Greater Cleveland Food Bank, are re-orienting their operations to support a range of services that go beyond providing basic hunger relief. The wider scope is evident in the partnerships they are striking, and in the new spaces they are creating to tie an expanded set of services together.

Connecting Newly Housed Residents with Transit

Hopelink and King County, WA Metro are teaming up to teach newly housed residents of the county’s 1,600 new affordable housing units how to use public transit. But instead of relying on transit professionals to reach out to traditionally underserved populations, they’re recruiting and training community members to support their peers.